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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

BREAKING: Grand Prix 7's Postponed

The Grand Prix 7's, which was tentatively scheduled for this July, has been postponed according to a source close to the event. The source said that Grand Prix had been working together with a large sponsor on the event but that negotiations would not be completed in time. An announcement has not yet been issued by Grand Prix themselves and there is a very small chance the even could continue according to the source. However, the event has been cancelled on the Home Depot Center webpage. The folks behind Grand Prix, especially their partners AEG, have been active in securing sponsorship and marketing for the event but were unable to complete the necessary steps to have the event ready on time. The event is expected to be played next year. The event was to bring in top teams from around the world to compete for $1 million in prize money.

The news is set back for U.S. fans hoping to see even more world class rugby this summer. Teams like New Zealand, Kenya, and Fiji had confirmed their participation in the tournament. It was also to mark the return of top class rugby to Southern California. The Rugby Showdown has since committed to brining a match to SoCal.

There is no obligation on Tatham's part to produce anything. USAR sold the rights because it desperately needed cash. Tatham's simply owns the rights and doesn't have to do a thing with them if he doesn't want to. Which is good, because apparently all he is interested in doing is making himself look like a joke. I assume this means that the NFL Network will never do business with him again, nor do I expect the Home Depot Center is going to be interested in anything he's promoting. I just wonder what the violin woman in NYC who owns the $10 million franchise thinks of all this...

Considering that virtually no rugby events in the U.S. are pulled off with at least a little bit of USAR staff help (even USA Sevens and the CRC), I'd be very surprised if USAR didn't have an operations agreement with Tatham. Maybe they'd be able to invoke breach of contract on those grounds?

What a joke... I'm so tired of this Tanthum guy and his bullshit. what very little credibility he had, he has lost. On a positive note I'm glad that his company bought the USA Rugby League competition. With this kind of leadership I'm confident that, that bastardized version of the sport will never see the light of day.

I have been following GPR for nearly 10 years and i had such high hopes for a professional 7s series. Kept the faith until about a year ago when i found out Tatham was in bed ass farting around with Russell Crow and Rugby League.

This guy is a joke and i wish he would go away and leave the American rugby community alone!

I'm actually personally happy that this never went through, as his money would be a corrupting influence that is not needed right now. We met with a lot of passionate rugby folks while in Vegas, and can attest that the standard of play in the U.S continues to accelerate. For me some of the most exciting rugby was played by the high school AA's as well as the SoCal All Star high school team. These are the boys that will be representing us if and when we make it to the Olympics.

That's a good idea Anon.....a few of the teams will be playing at the Serevi 7's in Glendale mid August, with plans for one or two more ODP tournaments in the works. The question is really where the money is best spent if it comes straight out of the ODP pockets. For example, we plan to take Tiger to Ireland in June and Australia in October to play against international competition. We feel that the exposure the boys get from those tours still trumps what we can get domestically....although the gap is closing fast.

“I’ve already told the chief executive of the SRU to confirm Samoa’s participation with the tournament’s organizing committee.

“I’ve also told him to make sure we assemble our strongest possible sevens team. To call up all the top key players we have playing overseas. That million US dollars is an attractive incentive for them to go out and win.”

To date, top sevens sides New Zealand, Australia, England, Fiji and Tonga have already publically indicated they will be sending teams to the tournament.

The Rugby Sevens Grand Prix will be held at the 60,000-seat Home Depot Stadium in Carson, Los Angeles on July 12-14.

Hold up guys, there are way to many "anonymous armchair critics" on this message board. If organizing international 7's Rugby events was easy, we would all be doing it and we would all be putting our names out there as innovators.

Many of us have bigs ideas but there are very few brave individuals in the US, who have the courage and skills to make it happen. Jon Prusmack and Dan Lyle at USA 7's LLC have shown the way with the 7's in Vegas but as successful as this even has been in its 9 year history, it has not exactly propelled rugby into the main stream of American culture.

It could just be that Bill Tatham is the man who can take the game of rugby to the next level; so let’s cut him some slack, America needs people like Bill who are not afraid to dream big - keep the faith and lets support his efforts to deliver.